Unable to host players after purchasing Fantasy Grounds Ultimate License

[Jwguy]

So, I recently purchased the Ultimate License, having been anticipating the program's release on Steam and deciding to just go ahead and get it directly from the source. That said, it appears to be non-functional over a network.

I'm not a novice to port-forwarding, and currently have around 13 different entries for port-forwarding on my router, and have a static IP assigned to my PC. I've followed the guides and notices posted in this forum regarding setting up port-forwarding for the port 1802, and then some, as well as have turned off my firewalls, entirely, but every time I attempt to test the connection (via the little button after selecting which campaign to load), it always immediately turns to 'FAILURE'. I've also tried to have my friends join the game (I may have done this wrong, but due to having the Ultimate License, I assume they can just connect as an unregistered user?), but the external IP fails to allow them to connect. When they attempt to connect via Hamachi, they appear in game for a brief moment, before disconnecting.

I am able to connect to my game with a second instance of Fantasy Grounds on my computer, using Localhost, but that appears to be the extent of it.

[damned]

hey Jwguy - welcome.
do you run any antivirus or software firewalls? you would need to make some exceptions there too.
if you want some help troubleshooting in real time let me know and i will work thru it together with you.

[Griogre]

If you are talking a local lan then have the clients connect to the local IP address rather than an alias. If you have a mix of players, some from the Internet and some from the local lan then the Internet clients should use the alias or external IP address and the locals should use the local IP address. The address information is shown on the top right of the Load Campaign screen/pane.

[Zeus]

Also, make sure you don't have any defunct or other instances of FantasyGrounds running as host in the background i.e still open and accepting connections, only the first instance will successfully bind to port 1802 and if you happen to have fired up and are hosting from a second instance and testing for outside connectivity, will also result in an apparently blocked connection.

[Jwguy]

hey Jwguy - welcome.
do you run any antivirus or software firewalls? you would need to make some exceptions there too.
if you want some help troubleshooting in real time let me know and i will work thru it together with you.

I run a few antivirus programs, the primary ones being Avira and Malwarebytes. That said, I've gone through and added the Fantasy Grounds executable to the exceptions list on both programs, as well as Windows Firewall, and have achieved the same failure with all of these programs disabled and with my PC set as DMZ on my router.


If you are talking a local lan then have the clients connect to the local IP address rather than an alias. If you have a mix of players, some from the Internet and some from the local lan then the Internet clients should use the alias or external IP address and the locals should use the local IP address. The address information is shown on the top right of the Load Campaign screen/pane.

I appreciate the thought, but I'm aware of the differences between internal and external IP. I've had my friends attempt to connect (from the internet) via both the external IP and the set Alias, with neither option yielding any good result.


Also, make sure you don't have any defunct or other instances of FantasyGrounds running as host in the background i.e still open and accepting connections, only the first instance will successfully bind to port 1802 and if you happen to have fired up and are hosting from a second instance and testing for outside connectivity, will also result in an apparently blocked connection.

I checked, and there only appears to be the one process for Fantasy Grounds open, at this moment, and the connection test reads failure. My friend who is attempting to connect to me is still timing out when he attempts to.

[Trenloe]

When you were using Hamachi what happened when the player connected but then disconnected? Did the GM see "player connecting" in the chat window? At what point did the player then disconnect?

It might be worth trying Hamachi again, as this at least got a player reaching port 1802 and then trying to work out why the player disconnected. Did you follow the Hamachi instructions here: www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20309-GM-Connection-Issues-Tried-Everything-Try-Hamachi

[Jwguy]

When you were using Hamachi what happened when the player connected but then disconnected? Did the GM see "player connecting" in the chat window? At what point did the player then disconnect?

It might be worth trying Hamachi again, as this at least got a player reaching port 1802 and then trying to work out why the player disconnected. Did you follow the Hamachi instructions here: www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?20309-GM-Connection-Issues-Tried-Everything-Try-Hamachi

Well, I see that I have a player in the game. It says that he has connected, but he never had the option to pick a character. After a few moments, he disconnected as if he had timed out.

That said, I managed to resolve the issue with my external IP and Aliases. After going through the process of elimination, I eventually disabled my Hamachi Network Adapter and stopped the Hamachi Tunneling Engine in the services panel. That appears to have removed whatever interference I was experiencing with having others connect.

Thank you for all of your assistance. It has been appreciated.

[Griogre]

Glad you got it working.